CHURCH, MUSIC, INTERPRETERS: REFLECTIONS ON THE CONFERENCE

Thursday 7 November 2019

Vatican City, Rome

This conference is sponsored by the Pontifical Council on Culture and the theme focus is “Church, Music, Interpreters: a Necessary Dialogue.” The lectures and workshops are split between Italian and English speakers, with United Nations-style simultaneous translation. This is my first experience with the process, and it has been challenging. 

First, there is an equipment challenge. The earpiece is designed to fit over the left ear but because I wear hearing aids I have to hold the piece to my left aid during the whole lecture, resulting in arm fatigue. Second, there’s the phenomenon of hearing two languages simultaneously. A professional interpreter has the seemingly magical ability to hear one language and repeat it in another language almost simultaneously, but this is a jarring juxtaposition for the listener. Eventually, the ear can be trained to discriminate and hear only the translation while blocking out the original language, but this is difficult because the speaker’s voice is so loud over an auditorium’s sound system. My hearing-impairment actually works in my favor because I can turn off my right hearing aid and hear only the translator in my left ear. 

According to my colleagues, the lectures are given in European style, which essentially means  the professor is reading his or her paper straight, word for word, in a dry presentation. The content is certainly well researched and organized but there is none of the interactive engagement that American audiences are accustomed to on the higher education or industry conference level. This is an international peer-to-peer gathering of professional musicologists, liturgists and ecclesiastics that has been opened up to parish musicians who have the means and desire to raise the bar in the knowledge of their craft. 

That said, the conference presentations are vital and interesting. Presenters are an impressive worldwide Who’s Who, addressing and expanding on the theme: Church (Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council on Culture and eminent Old Testament scholar); Music (Father Theo Flurry, OSB, titular organist at Einsiedeln Abbey who gave an impassioned and inspiring demonstration on the spiritual dimensions of improvisation on the pipe organ); Interpreter (Dr. Pawel Lukaszewski, Vice-Rector and head of composition at Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw). 

Dr. Lukaszewski’s presentation on “The Language of the Composer” really spoke to me since we share a common ministry as composer. Although his focus is on contemporary classical music and mine is contemporary popular, his points are applicable to both disciplines: Knowledge of music and mastery of the craft of composition are important, but they are only the means, not the end. The true goal of liturgical composition is the sacred, which begins when the compositional craft ends. This is because an excessive concentration on technical matters prevents a composer from reaching into the deeper level of music. PRAYER is the key that will lead text, emotions, tempo, dynamics, melody and other musical language to sacrum, truth, beauty, God. Dr. Lukaszewski cites Pope Pius X: “Sacred music should . . . possess in the highest degree the quantities proper to the liturgy, and in particular sanctity and goodness of form, which will spontaneously produce the final quality of universality.” The professor played recordings of his own works that were stunning examples of his craft. 

There was a very interesting presentation on polyphony by Giovanni Acciai, who is professor of Musical Paleography at the Conservatory of Milan. He posited that polyphony thrived as the next direction for sacred music after Gregorian chant because of the influence and changes brought about by humanistic ideas in the fields of poetry, music, science and astronomy. Palestrina and his contemporaries were expressing their times by dressing poetic sacred texts in an over-layered compositional form, utilizing vocal techniques that went beyond the relatively straightforward approach of chant. 

Intercultural perspectives were discussed in presentations on music and dance in the Mediterranean area (Pino di Lucia, SJ, PhD); Church music in Colombia (Egberto Bermudez); and a stirring performance on Cuban baroque music by Ancient Music Ensemble Ars Longa of Havana. There were many more presentations by world renowned experts too numerous for me to mention in this short summary. 

This Third International Conference of the Pontifical Council for Culture was truly rich and enlightening. As Pope Francis expressed in his closing remarks to our group, “I hope that the work accomplished in these days may prove to be for everyone a stimulating experience of the Gospel, of liturgical life, and of service to the Church and culture.” 

Next Blog: Vespers in the Sistine Chapel